In the past, a variety of clip-on type sunglasses have been developed to reversibly convert ordinary eyeglasses to sunglasses. Examples of such clip-on type sunglasses are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,571 issued Dec. 9, 1997, to Jack N. Spencer et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,177 issued Jun. 24, 1997, to Takahiro Nishioka.
However, while the utilitarian prior art has provided the eyeglass wearer with relief from the glare of the sun, it has done so at the expense of aesthetics. Clip-on sunglasses typically give the wearer the unattractive appearance of having hardware attached to the front of his or her eyeglasses thus compromising the stylishness of the wearer's eyeglass frames.